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The Social Organization website (About Social Capital / my second book)

Thursday, 3 September 2009

Adrienne notes that many companies are still struggling to understand how to harness the power of the new virtual world of social technology – particularly in areas like HR, where compared to Sales & Marketing, the application of social media is relatively less clear.

The report notes that there is a significant opportunity for using social media in HR, with some of the drivers being that:

Over 1/3 of people are already using social media on a daily basis. This number is increasingly exponentially, and Gey Y are in any case less apt to use traditional methods in pursuit of employment opportunities.

There is generally a high level of ‘virtual authenticity’ – ie people generally present themselves as themselves on the web. People are aware that companies are ‘scraping the internet’ for personal information and corporate use of personal information has little effect on individual disclosure of this information.

There is a need for cultural change in organisations – particularly as companies shift to virtual workforces, they need people who are comfortable in virtual work communities.

I’d go along with these, but I think (without the benefits of having researched this) that there’s a few other important drivers too. One is enabling people to be more involved in the management processes that otherwise just happen to them (career management for example). And another is supporting a move to a more social way of managing – helping people do things between themselves (referral schemes for example).

I’d be really interested in hearing from you, particularly if your company is actively using social media within the HR function – what would you say the main drivers have been?…